$258K For Independent Audit Of National Register Of Voters

Fiji’s National Register of Voters will be independently audited.

Yesterday the Australian Government contributed $258,000 for the audit which would be overseen by the Electoral Commission as custodians of the register.

The audit was a recommendation by the Multinational Observer Group in the 2018 General Election.

Australian High Commissioner to Fiji, John Feakes said: “On the request of the Electoral Commission, Australia is pleased to provide a contribution to support its planned audit of the National Register of Voters.

“This will assist the Electoral Commission to implement a recommendation of the Multinational Observer Group of the 2018 Fijian Election.

“Australia is providing funding directly to the Electoral Commission to conduct this work.

“The audit will be commissioned and managed by the Electoral Commission.”

The Electoral Commission chairman, Mukesh Nand, said: “The audit aims to support the Electoral Commission to make a determination on the manner in which the FEO is maintaining the register and where necessary provide relevant direction to the FEO to improve the manner in which the register is kept.”

The audit would include an audit of procedures, IT systems and statistical testing to assess the quality of the voter register and voters list through the “list to voters” and/or the “people to list method”.

The commission had conducted a call for expressions of interest from suitably experienced firms and expects to announce results of the procurement process shortly.